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Bear Fight! + The Powder Room + Rotten Blush at the Jinx – a preview

Bear Fight! is headlining the Jinx on Saturday for their first show since opening for local sludge metal legends Black Tusk back in June. It might also be their last show of 2014.

According to guitarist Jeff Hinely, the band is taking a brief hiatus to work on some new material. Hinely said they will probably return to the stage for the Savannah Stopover Festival next year.

Since I first saw these guys, their 2012 album Gnarmageddon (below) has been a staple of my “Hammer of Thor” playlist. (Which by the name you might guess doesn’t have any John Mayer on it.)

Gnar is a blaring mix of soaring riffs and some of the best metal breakdowns you’ve ever heard, in a conglomerate of neck-breaking progressive metal.

From the opening title track, to the love song “No Body” a third of the way through, to the closing instrumental “Night Of The Living Shred,” this album, while two years old, still packs a punch, and is some refreshing metallurgy yielded by some very skilled musicians.

And if you’re afraid, be assured that their live shows justify their recorded selves.

Bear Fight! has yet to release music since new guitarist Dave Andergg joined up. While there might be some new material on Saturday (one can hope), it’s going to be exciting to see what these guys have in store for the future.

As was noted in bill’s Unplugged column this week (here), these guys typically open for bigger acts. Saturday is an exception as Athen’s The Powder Room and Savannah’s Rotten Blush will be opening. Which means, by Jinx time standards (JST – time zone), Bear Fight! will probably hit the stage after midnight.

But, that is no excuse to miss the opening acts, yo.

Powder Room is a gripping sludge metal trio out of Athens. Their latest 9-track assault “Curtains” dropped in April of this year. (check it out below)

Sludge metal is a good moniker for these gents, but there is so much more to their own brand of hardcore punk/shoegaze/noise/melodic metal. Yeah, lots of genres in there. I typically love bands that are hard to define. It means they’re doing something different. Powder Room is different in all the right ways.

The enigmatic Rotten Blush will probably not disappoint. Here are some photos and words about Rotten Blush from fellow HL contributor/photo man Petee Worrell (here)